The Raj revision: why historians are thinking again about British rule in India

Is there anything good to be said of British rule over India? The verdict of many politicians, museum curators, TV presenters and even journalists in India is clear: the Raj existed only to exploit and oppress. It caused poverty and famine in the east, and made the western world richer. The writer and politician Shashi Tharoor in a best-selling book Inglorious Empire blames the Raj for ‘depredation’, ‘loot’, ‘rapaciousness’, ‘brutality’, and ‘plunder’. He is far from alone in that withering verdict: social media posts spread similar messages with religious zeal.

Oddly though historians have moved away from similar damning verdicts on the Raj. Over the last 40 years, more evidence on colonialism has come to light: much of this suggests that the expeditions of the Raj did not benefit Britain in the way many of their critics think. Britain, and other colonial powers, had too little power to restructure the societies they ruled and their aims were not always clear to the ruling class and seldom achievable.